


Ironbound

by magicasen



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Hydra Steve Rogers, M/M, Not A Fix-It, Secret Empire (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-26 06:06:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12052890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicasen/pseuds/magicasen
Summary: The Avengers attempt a rescue operation.





	Ironbound

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SirSapling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirSapling/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Cap IM Tiny RB Round 10: Reactor](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11791626) by [SirSapling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirSapling/pseuds/SirSapling). 



> Written for SirSapling's great TRB art. I love Tony and his kids, and they look so righteous and determined! 
> 
> Thanks to Kiyaar for looking this over and helping me angst it up! You're the best.
> 
> This diverges from canon post-Secret Empire #6. It's kind of a downer ending but it's not entirely without hope? I think.

Tony can't tell how much noise he's making. He's thinking of how to put one leg in front of the other, how to swing his arms in time to his steps, how to bear the weight of his body against gravity.

He wished for this for months, desperately, a real body with real feeling again, a sense of place in the world. Then the universe gives it to him, and all his concentration goes to staying upright and not throwing up the contents of his empty stomach.

Kamala glances over her shoulder at him, and her lip wobbles a bit before she stretches her arm out. Tony kneels into her giant-size palm, wraps his hands around her thumb as she lifts him up. Riri takes point, and Miles and Sam move forward to protect their most vulnerable member.

Jesus, Tony thinks. He'd already met his end once, when he'd triggered the clean slate protocol at the Mount and his life flashed in front of his eyes before the world exploded. Then these kids break into the Helicarrier, a pit of snakes, to retrieve his body. A retrieval turned rescue, when Tony woke up and learned he hadn't even managed to take Steve out with him.

The cold fear of being found is tempered by the pride, that the fascists have nothing on the smartest, bravest, and most heroic kids the world has to offer. That none of them can legally drive makes no difference. Hydra systems are no match for Riri, and her full access lets them navigate undetected, while Miles and Sam deal with the few Hydra agents they won't escape the notice of.

When they duck into an empty room, Tony finally feels like his world isn't going to spin off its axis if he goes on his own.

“Are you sure?” Miles asks.

“I can't be slowing you down. I've dealt with worse. We all have.”

“I don't know about that, Mister Stark,” Sam says. “Things are pretty bad.”

“Don't be a smartass. Tony can handle himself,” and there's not a drop of sarcasm in Riri's voice.

“Right. What are you kids doing, worrying about me instead of prom?”

Kamala finally, reluctantly opens her palm, and when Tony's feet touch the ground, it's a rush of relief. That he's back, that he can finally do something for the world. For Steve.

“Um, Mister Stark? Your armor isn't supposed to glow like that, is it?” Kamala takes a quick step back.

“The Model-IV? Of course it does,” and Tony looks down before he's blinded by the supernova of light.

There's no way in or out of the room beside the door. The door's closed. But before them, Hydra agents appear out of thin air, one after the other,.

“Oh no,” Kamala whispers, and Tony's world goes black when she covers him with her hand, shielding him from the onslaught of bullets.

Tony can't see, but he can hear the crashing of close-quarter combat, and he pounds at the hand cupped over him. It's seconds later when Kamala brings her hand up so she can slap three agents to the wall with a resounding crack.

Miles flips over when he takes a hit, and Tony's on the agents after him, shooting repulsor after repulsor. The room is filled with light, from him and Riri and Sam all at once.

Combat has become automatic for the youngest Avengers as much as it has for Tony. The rest of the agents are downed in short order, until the only sound left are his team's gasps and pants.

Their heads shoot up in unison when there's a sound from the hallway, and the kids dart behind Tony.

The door opens.

The Hydra agents fan around Steve when he steps through. Tony throws his arms out, and he hears the kids shuffle closer together behind him.

Steve doesn't take note of them. His gaze hasn't left Tony's since he'd entered the room. When he speaks, his voice comes out hoarse.

“What's this, now? Have you upgraded to LMDs? If you're still a fake after everything, I won't be pleased.”

“You can always go and check my pod for yourself,” Tony says. “'Fool me twice', and all.”

Steve smiles, and it's skin-crawling. The Cosmic Cube is capable of altering reality, but any world where Steve Rogers could look like that shouldn't exist. “It is you, isn't it? You've finally woken up.”

Tony spreads his arms wider, and Steve laughs, now.

“Come on, Tony. It's over now. Give up.”

“Sorry,” Tony says. “Green isn't really my color.”

“You won't speak to the Supreme Leader like that!” someone shouts, and pulls the trigger.

Their bullet hits the floor. Steve twists the trigger-happy agent's arm further, forcing the gun out of their hand. He takes their gun, puts it to their temple, and pulls the trigger.

It's dead silent after, and Steve's gaze snaps back to Tony's. There's blood on his face, now.

“No one touches him except me. Understood?”

The pool of blood spreads further on the floor, Steve's order granting Tony invincibility.

It's his chance, Tony realizes.

Riri's hand is on Tony's shoulder, and Tony grabs it, and all the Hydra agent's guns jerk but no one dares to shoot.

Tony spreads his palm over Riri's. “Get this to Shaun and Raz—”

“Tony?”

“—they have potential, just—”

“Mister Stark!”

Riri's eyes widen. “No! We can't do this without you!”

“Yes, you can, and you will. You're not fighting for me. You're fighting for your future.” Tony takes her hand, and closes her fingers into a fist. “That's why you're Ironheart. Now, win.”

And Tony wishes.

Riri screams when her hand is tugged away from Tony's.

“Tony!” She reaches for him, and the rest of them are shouting his name, too. Riri makes one last leap, and when their fingertips are about to brush, she vanishes into the ether.

They're gone. They're safe. Tony struggles to stay on his feet.

“Very touching,” Steve muses. “Wishing them away, and not yourself. Are you turning yourself in?”

He's not angry, even though the Underground has a shard again. The one that, a minute ago, was embedded in Tony's RT.

Tony can't think of any reason it could have ended up there, unless someone put it there. Someone who wanted something from Tony enough to sacrifice a shard, someone who would rather deal with Tony right now than go after his lost fragment.

Whatever Steve's reasons, if Tony had escaped with the kids, Steve would have pursued them to the ends of the earth. But now Tony's bought them time, and he knows them. It'll be enough. It'll be worth it.

Tony glares back at Steve, who looks as delighted by that as if Tony had knelt before him.

“You realize, that was your last chance to escape? You told them not to give up, but now you're the prisoner who can't fight back.”

“You must not know me as well as you think you do, _Supreme Leader._ I have a track record with making life hell for my kidnappers, and you think you're any different?”

Steve smiles even wider, like he knows he _is_ the exception, that as long as this Hydra monster wears the face of Steve Rogers, that there isn't a thing in the world that would make Tony hurt him.

He's right.

 


End file.
